GlobalFoundries' Dresden fab to run 22-nm CMOS

LONDON  Fab 1 in Dresden, Germany, belonging to GlobalFoundries Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), is starting work to help develop 22-nm CMOS process and will run the process in volume. It is not clear whether the 22-nm will include a departure from the gate-first high-K metal gate (HKMG) CMOS processes currently being brought up at 32- and 28-nanometers.

Fab 1 was expected to be workhorse fab at the 45/40-nm and 32/28-nm nodes while GlobalFoundries' wafer fab under construction in New York state, Fab 8, would run the 22-nm production and more advanced nodes.

"The 22-nm node is being worked on in Fab 1, and elsewhere. Fab 1 will pilot ramp and go to some volume in 22-nm," according to Udo Nothelfer, general manager of Fab 1. Nothelfer said that while GlobalFoundries was working quickly to erect its fab in New York, commercial production was not scheduled to start there before the second half of 2012 and that production of 22-nm CMOS would be required before that.

The reference to work elsewhere on the 22-nm CMOS process references the fact that GlobalFoundries is part of the IBM-led technology alliance that includes Infineon, NEC, Samsung, STMicroelectronics, Toshiba and others.

Fab-1, previously Fabs 30 and 36 belonging to Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), became the first manufacturing site of GlobalFoundries at its formation as a joint venture between AMD and the Abu Dhabi state investment vehicle Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC).

The Dresden fab is currently offering a 45-nm silicon-on-insulator process for high performance circuits but the company is moving quickly to bring up a 32-nm SOI with HKMG and a 28-nm bulk CMOS process with HKMG. Both are in the gate-first style.

Commercial production of 32-nm SOI HKMG is due to start at Dresden in July 2009 and 28-nm bulk HKMG is due to start at the end of September, the same time as the foundry operation of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. intends to start (see Samsung explores gate-last high-k).